Sunday, March 11, 2012

By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat.com
The law of classical economics dictates that when demand exceeds
supply, prices go up and dampens demand until it reaches equilibrium
with the supply. On the other hand, when demand is low and supply
exceeds it, prices would go down until demand increases and achieves
equilibrium with supply. This is called the invisible hand of the
market. This is the logic of neoclassical or neoliberal economics,
thus, the push for limiting government intervention in the economy
through deregulation, liberalization and privatization.

However, stagflation hit the world economy in the 1970s and this
baffled economists. Stagflation, or stagnation coupled with inflation,
should not have occurred because in a stagnant economy, unemployment is
high and demand is low so why do prices increase? The response of
economists and governments of advanced capitalist countries is to push
for more deregulation, liberalization and privatization plus controlling
inflation through raising or lowering interest rates. But still, this
did not solve the problem of rising prices even during these times when
the world is suffering from a Great Recession, which progressives say is
more aptly described as a Great Depression comparable to what the world
experienced in 1929.

03/11/2012
Not only are Noynoy and his allies
complaining about Chief Justice Renato Corona’s personal visits to media
outfits to make his defense against the muckraking operations launched
against him but are now appear to be shaking in their boots as Corona
starts to lay down his cards on the table.

The whole frontline
team of Noynoy in the Senate is being exposed one by one as key parts of
the oust-Corona crusade and what is emerging is that it has nothing to
do with cleaning up the judiciary but more to control the Supreme Court
(SC) by appointing a Noynoy-favored justice in it. And this appears
important, as it has also been shown that Noynoy did try to lobby for
the passage of his Truth Commission with the Chief Justice, who rebuffed
him, which then made Noynoy see red, and start his campaign to oust
Corona.

Corona had confirmed the long talked about term-sharing
agreement with Senior Justice Antonio Carpio during his media swings and
many more underhanded moves of Noynoy and his allies..... MORE

United States Attorney General Eric Holder recently explained how the
president can order the assassination of his own citizens abroad. But
did his rationalization justify executions within the US? Apparently,
the FBI wouldn’t exclude it.

Responding to a congressional inquiry this week on the rationale of
assassinating Americans, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert
Mueller affirmed that he himself isn’t too clear on the what Holder
explained.

The attorney general addressed an audience at
Northwestern University in Chicago this week with an explanation for US
President Barack Obama’s killing of three American citizens overseas
last year..... MORESource: RT.com

The UN delegation led by Kofi Annan is holding its second round of
talks with Syrian President Assad. But with both the opposition and the
regime flatly refusing to open dialogue until violence has ended, the
likelihood of progress seems slim.

Former UN chief Kofi Annan’s first round of talks failed to reach any
tangible resolution on the conflict. President Assad made it clear on
Saturday that negotiations would not be open while “armed terrorist groups were still operating in the country.”.... MORE

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that
devastated Japan’s east coast exactly one year ago were not supposed to
happen. At least if seismic hazard maps are not cheating. But can modern
science really predict such disasters?

­As Joel Achenbach noted quite rightly in his Washington Post
article, Earth paid no heed to scientific orthodoxy. And while
geologists were theorizing, a massive slab of our planet’s crust moved
55 meters (180 feet) eastwards. It lifted the ocean bed almost 5 meters
up (15 feet), and that brought all the might of the waters of the
Pacific upon Japan’s eastern coast..... MORE

A year ago to the day, Japan was hit by a 9.0 earthquake and a
resulting tsunami that led to the worst nuclear disaster since
Chernobyl. Thousands lost their lives but the question is: if it all
happened again, would things turn out any differently?

Sixteen thousand candles: one for each victim of the disaster. With
the names of the dead etched on them, all were lit at a Buddhist
memorial service in Osaka on Saturday.

Five hundred bodies remain unidentified. More than 3,000 are still missing..... MORE

03/11/2012
The ongoing impeachment trial has been
receiving not only national interest and attention but also various
perceptions on the part of Filipinos as to its cause (How come?) as well
as its nature (What?) and finality (Why?).

How come there is
such a distinct and even unfamiliar process altogether financed by
public funds? What does it mean for the people who have been long in
need and waiting for a better life? Why is it undertaken to judge on but
one person when graft and corruption are still a composite living
institutional practice in the different agencies of government?

There
can be many answers to the many questions thus raised about the more
and more interesting impeachment process. Both the questions thereon and
the answers thereto can be as the varied different groups of
individuals who respond thereto — depending on such factors as the
following: The political loyalties of those playing a direct active role
therein..... MORESource: The Daily Tribune

“Sins against Filipino women are being committed on a daily basis.” By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIOBulatlat.com

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, March 8, the Center for
Women’s Resources (CWR) said that despite the existence and supposed
enforcement of 37 Philippine laws, executive orders, resolutions that
are supposed to protect and serve the welfare and development of women,
violence against them continues.

The group defines violence against women as “an act or series of acts
that involves coercion, intimidation, threat, and/or deception. It
causes physical, sexual or psychological harm. The CWR also explained
that violence against women also includes the neglect of women’s
interests, needs, and welfare.

Victims of political repression
Listing what it said were “sins” being committed against Filipino
women on a daily basis, the CWR said the Benigno Aquino III
administration has yet to prove that it is genuinely pro-women. It also
said the armed forces of the government are using violence against
women as a means of political repression.

From July 2010 to December 2011, six women fell victim to
extra-judicial killings that were politically-motivated. There are
currently 35 women political prisoners in different jails in the
country. Detained women are more vulnerable to sexual abuse and torture
as seen in the cases of former political detainee and now Selda
secretary general Angie Ipong and the women belonging to the Morong 43.

Out of the government’s 23 women detainees, 16 reported being subjected to torture.

Apart from the serious implications of political repression, counted
among the more serious violations being perpetrated against women is the
act of rape. Based on data from the Philippine National Police (PNP)
and the Women’s Crisis and Child Protection Center (WCCPC) , there were
14,201 recorded cases of rape (76.56 percent of all crimes committed
against women of a sexual nature), attempted rape (18.68 percent) and
incestuous rape (5.74 percent) from January 2000 to August 2011..... MORE

03/11/2012
Possible military abuse had reared its
ugly head anew at Hacienda Luisita, which is owned by President Aquino’s
relatives and subject of a Supreme Court order for land distribution,
as representatives of cause-oriented groups went to the vast
Cojuangco-Aquino estate to conduct a fact-finding mission on the
situation of its farm workers amid reports of militarization and
harassment by military and private security groups.

The Alyansa ng
mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) said in a statement
that the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon, Karapatan, Unyon ng
mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, Luisita Peasants’ and Peoples’ Alliance,
and other organizations will join the fact-finding mission that covers
the barangays (villages) of Balete, Mapalacsiao, Lourdes, Cutcut and
Asturias in Tarlac City; Motrico and Bantog in La Paz; and Mabilog,
Pando, and Parang all in Concepcion..... MORE

03/11/2012
The lawyers of impeached Chief Justice
Renato Corona yesterday bared their defense strategy focusing on
unmasking the forces behind the effort at the House of Representatives
to ram through the impeachment complaint and the defects of the charges
against Corona after it failed to go through the proper legislative
procedures.

In contrast to the prosecution panel’s amateurish
performance at the impeachment trial, the defense lawyers promised a
clear-cut and structured defense presentation at the resumption of the
impeachment trial tomorrow.

“We will show on the first day that
there were invisible hands moving to have the impeachment complaint
immediately filed at the Senate. Next, we will prove our initial
comments about the verified complaint not going through the proper
process at the House,” defense spokesman Rico Quicho said..... MORE

Task
Force Penaranda yesterday announced that the killing of University of
the Philippines Los Baos (UPLB) agriculture student Ray Bernard Pearanda
was considered solved following the arrest of the third suspect during a
police pursuit operation against him in Bicol region.

Police
Regional Office 4 Dir. James Andres Melad said the task force teams have
captured Carl Dactil de Guzman, 27, the third and last suspect in the
murder of Pearanda.

De Guzman was apprehended in Barangay Tagas,
Daraga, Albay before 2 p.m. on Friday following hot pursuit operations.
He said de Guzman went into hiding in his relatives home there..... MORE

03/11/2012
Pope Benedict XVI has conveyed his
condolences on the death of Cardinal Jose Sanchez in a telegram sent to
Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, archbishop emeritus of Cebu.

According to
the Vatican’s Information Service, the text of the pope’s telegram
gratefully recalls “the late cardinal’s dedicated service to the Lord as
a priest and bishop in his native country, as well as our service
together in the Roman Curia during the pontificate of Blessed John Paul
II.”

The Holy Father commends Cardinal Sanchez’s “noble soul” to
the Lord and prays “that his witness will inspire others to dedicate
their lives to the service of the Lord and His Holy Church, especially
in the priesthood.”.... MORE

Former
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Magtanggol Gatdula has
asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to defer its proceedings against
him, citing the pending case before the courts he filed against his
persecutors.

In a petition, Gatdula through his lawyer Abraham Espejo asked the DoJ to “suspend (the) proceedings” against him.

Gatdula
had been accused of abduction and extortion by a Japanese woman, Noriyo
Ohara, who claimed NBI operatives demanded P6 million from her for her
protection.

Gatdula who denied Ohara’s claim pointed out that the DoJ proceedings should be set aside in the meantime..... MORE

03/11/2012
A top Palace official yesterday
described the call for the government to consider increasing the
salaries of the Filipino workers as “premature.”

Deputy
presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said in a radio briefing that aside
from being premature, petitions for wage adjustments should not be
directed to Malacañang but to the regional wage boards.

She added
the regional wage boards should discuss calls from some groups for a
wage hike to help workers cope with rising costs of living.

“It
(the call for a wage hike) is something that should be entertained by
the regional wage board,” Valte said on government-run radio station..... MORE